Florida Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

Published on: July 20, 2013

Nursing Home Abuse From Fellow Patients a Growing Problem

The New York Times recently chronicled the heartbreaking, yet all-too-familiar saga of a woman who stood helplessly aside as her husband spiraled further into dementia, the disease causing him to become progressively more aggressive.

He would lunge at the television when they were watching a movie, as if he intended to fight the bad guy himself. One day he tried to strike a caregiver who was hired to help bathe and feed him. When the wife no longer felt safe at home alone amid her husband’s angry outbursts, she sent him to live in a nursing home.

Our Delray Beach nursing home abuse lawyers know that scenarios like this are very common. It’s part of the reason why violence in nursing homes is so often perpetuated by fellow patients.

A survey conducted by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America last year found that aggressive behavior and/or fears that a patient will harm himself or others are among the top reasons that family caregivers consider placing a loved one in an institution.

Nursing home administrators and staffers have a responsibility to protect all of their patients. This means ensuring that the aggressive outbursts of dementia patients are mitigated and subdued and also doing everything possible to protect other patients in the event that the reaction can’t be subdued.

Of course, it’s not only dementia patients that harm fellow residents — but we do know that a large portion of nursing home residents suffer from some form of dementia. A German study published last spring by the Cambridge University Press found that nearly one-third of all dementia patients have displayed physically aggressive behavior. Most often, that behavior was manifested in harm to ones’ self or ones’ caregiver, but it was not always limited to those individuals.

In Toronto, the story of a 68-year-old dementia patient made headlines when he was violently beaten about the face and head with a wooden activity board. He suffered severe bruising and head wounds. He was found by staffers slumped over in a chair, drenched in blood. The culprit? A fellow elderly dementia patient, female, who was known to have a propensity for aggressive and violent outbursts. She reportedly entered the man’s room and assaulted him not once but twice before staffers realized what happened.

The Canadian Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care estimates the number of incidents of patient-on-patient top 10,000 annually. It’s believed to be much higher in the U.S.

Dementia patients who display aggression don’t mean to be that way. It’s the disease. Confusing, fear, anger or pain may cause someone to lash out by kicking, hitting, biting, throwing and shoving.

In a lot of cases, staffers are trained to use certain behavioral approaches to soothe an aggressive outburst. Sometimes, it’s as simple as allowing that person to do what they want.

Routines can be important, especially in a larger facility, but being flexible is often key to reducing aggression in dementia patients.

For example, one facility in Ohio recalled having a former resident who would yell and swing and curse at the aides who attempted to wake him up at 8 a.m., the normal time. However, when the staff switched gears and allowed him to sleep until 10 a.m., they had no problems at all.

It’s also important for staffers to pay attention to medical problems, such as depression, pain or infection, that the person may not be able to properly express, which could in turn cause him or her to act out. Environmental factors, such as crowds and noises, could also have an impact.

In some cases, other residents at the home are simply innocent bystanders to these outbursts, but they may still be harmed. Nursing homes have a responsibility to ensure they are protected.
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Published on: July 15, 2013

Elder Abuse Awareness Month Recognized in July

By Dean Freeman

July is World Elder Abuse Awareness Month, serving as a reminder to our Cooper City nursing home abuse lawyers that this is more than a Florida problem. It’s more than a U.S. problem. It’s a global problem that deserves our time, attention and dedication.

The Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse & Neglect at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine reports that a staggering 1 in 10 older adults will experience some form of abuse during their golden years. Last year, the Special Investigations Division of the House Government Reform Committee found that 1 in 3 nursing homes had been cited for some form of abuse or neglect over the previous two years.

And yet, abuse of the elderly is a situation that often continues to go unnoticed, unreported, unpunished.

The National Institute of Justice reported that elder neglect and abuse may contribute significantly to a number of conditions, including depression, bed sores and malnutrition.

Those aren’t the only forms it can take, but because it bears resemblance to conditions that are common in the elderly, physicians and family members may be less likely to detect it. When you factor in issues like dementia, it significantly reduces the doctor or family member’s confidence in a report of abuse or neglect by a patient – if they even manage to make one.

The NIJ found that even when there was clear indication of abuse or neglect, doctors were reluctant to report them because they wanted to avoid the risk of being compelled to testify in court, especially if all they were acting upon was strong suspicion and not 100 percent proof.

Part of the problem we face right now in this arena is that there are very few explicit “markers” to indicate definitively when elder abuse may be occurring. We are getting slightly better, officials say, when it comes to recognizing some of the symptoms, but creating a system for reporting those suspicions has been an ongoing challenge.

As Dr. Mark Lachs, the co-chief of geriatrics and gerontology at Cornell University, put it, medical and forensic science with regard to elder neglect and abuse is about 30 years behind where we are with reporting of child abuse and neglect. Looking ahead, what Lachs indicates is truly needed to prevent elder abuse is the establishment of multidisciplinary teams to investigate claims of elder abuse. This is particularly important when you have concerned health care workers who either don’t have the expertise or the time to investigate these claims or suspicions themselves.

One thing that doctors and family members can look for is a pattern. For example, we know that falls among elderly people are more likely to lead to fractured bones than someone who is younger. One case may not necessarily be indicative of abuse, though it could. However, if there are a pattern of falls within a single facility, that’s a red flag and a sure sign that there is a problem. Nursing homes have a duty to closely monitor patients and do all they can to prevent falls or other situations where patients might injure themselves.

We still have a long way to go in terms of curbing elder abuse. By remaining vigilant and open to exploring situations that just don’t seem right, our Cooper City nursing home abuse lawyers are confident we will continue to make strides.
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Published on: July 12, 2013

Alzheimer Patient Abuse Difficult to Detect

By Dean Freeman

At a Georgia elder-care facility designed specifically for Alzheimer patients, nearly two dozen former employees are facing upwards of 70 criminal charges alleging cruelty to those for whom they were supposed to be caring.

Our Greenacres nursing home abuse lawyers were appalled to learn that this was not a matter of a few isolated incidents. We’re talking about a culture of systematic mistreatment, neglect and abuse toward people who did not have the ability to defend or speak out for themselves.

Some of the allegations include actions ranging from staffers throwing water on patients to in some cases physically striking them. A few staffers were alleged to have stolen from their patients.

Some patients were allegedly restrained with bedsheets. In other cases, staffers were alleged to have engaged in a practice known as “double-diapering.” This is where a staffer would put multiple diapers on a person so that the soiling wouldn’t soak through the outer layers of clothing, and staffers presumably wouldn’t have to change patients as often. Of course, such actions are not only undignified and inhumane, they could lead to serious infection or illness, particularly for someone who is elderly and whose immune system is already weakened.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations reported that a number of patients were being cared for by individuals who had prior felony convictions. Prior staff crimes included identity theft and voluntary manslaughter.

In all, warrants have been issued for 21 current and former staffers, with specific charges including neglect, financial exploitation and cruelty to persons over the age of 65.

The owner of the facility is among those being charged.

This case is unquestionably horrific, both in terms of the alleged acts committed and also with regard to the fact that the abuse apparently went on for so long unchecked by administrators at this facility and state authorities.

In some ways, though, this latter fact is unsurprising. Patients who suffer from conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s are among the most vulnerable. They are often confused and many times uncommunicative. Even when they do have moments of clarity, their statements are likely to be brushed off as unreliable. And if it’s mentioned to one person, the patient may not be able to remember or repeat it later.

This makes catching and stopping these kinds of actions extremely difficult.

The Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse and Neglect at the University of California, Irvine, reports that elderly patients with dementia are at greater risk of abuse and neglect than the general elderly population.

It’s estimated that about 5.3 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s disease, with the vast majority of those over the age of 65. That number is expected to grow significantly as the baby boomer population ages, up to 7.7 million in 2030 and to 16 million by 2050.

The center reports that three international studies recorded overall abuse rates of people with dementia by caregivers somewhere in the range of 34 to 62 percent. A U.S. study revealed caregiver neglect and abuse of dementia patients hovered around 47 percent. Rates for verbal abuse were much higher, at about 60 percent. Fourteen percent of U.S. caregivers of dementia patients admitted to neglect.
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Published on: July 10, 2013

Florida Nursing Home Patient Dies After 17 Falls, Son Wins $1.1B

By Dean Freeman

A Florida jury has awarded more than $1.1 billion to a man whose mother fell victim to nursing home negligence.

Our Port St. Lucie nursing home abuse lawyers understand that the jury spent little more than an hour in deliberations before deciding on $110 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages. It’s unclear how much of that judgement, if any, is actually going to be recovered.

A separate 2010 case lodged against this same defendant resulted in a $114 million verdict, though efforts to collect on those damages are still pending. Two other cases against the same company are still awaiting trial.

The hope is at the very least that this facility won’t be in a position to put anyone else’s loved one in harm’s way.

The case stems from the death of a 69-year-old woman who was being cared for at Auburndale Oaks Healthcare Center in Polk County. Her stay there lasted from 2004 until her death three years later.

During that time, the woman reportedly suffered 17 falls as a result of improper supervision at the nursing home.

Care at the home was supervised by Trans Healthcare Inc. and Trans Healthcare Management. Attorneys for the plaintiff say these were for-profit companies, part of conglomerate that took over the nursing home, “looted assets, short-staffed it, under-budgeted it and as a result, the nursing home residents were suffering.”

Sadly, this is not an uncommon story when it comes to for-profit nursing home facilities. Last year, federal health care inspectors issued a report indicating that the U.S. nursing home industry overbills some $1.5 billion annually for treatment that patients either don’t need or don’t get. Later, Bloomberg News conducted a more in-depth analysis of those figures and determined that for-profit nursing homes were the larger culprit, with 30 percent of their claims improper, versus 12 percent of non-profit nursing home care facilities’ claims.

The other issue that arises in this case is the seriousness of falls for elderly patients.

We don’t know all the circumstances behind each fall, but we do know that the last one resulted in a hip fracture for the patient. She was reportedly left in her hospital bed for four days before ultimately being transported to a hospital.

Staffers blamed the lack of available staff to not only supervise but also to respond to an emergency.

Falls account for more than a third of preventable hospital emergency room visits made by nursing home residents. Fall-related injuries are responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,800 nursing home residents annually. Many of those instances are preventable.

It’s estimated that in a typical, 100-bed nursing home facility, there are between 100 and 200 falls reported each year. That’s especially troubling when you consider that many times, falls aren’t reported.

Falls are dangerous to older residents as it is. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that falls are the No. 1 cause of death from injury among people over the age of 65. Twenty to 30 percent of all falls among seniors result in serious injury, such as head trauma or hip fractures.

It’s more dangerous if that individual lives in a nursing home. Adults over the age of 65 who live in a nursing home are twice as likely to suffer a fall as those who are cared for elsewhere. They are also four times as likely to die of a fall-related injury if they live in a nursing home.

Nursing homes have a responsibility to ensure not only that there are adequate prevention measures in place to prevent falls and that there is adequate staff to supervise patients in case of a fall. When facilities fail in this regard, they need to be held accountable.
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Published on: June 30, 2013

Adult Bed Rail Safety Standards to be Updated

By Dean Freeman

Both the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a joint announcement recently that they would be establishing a joint committee that will update the voluntary safety standards for the adult portable bed rails frequently used in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Indian River County nursing home negligence attorneys know this has been a long time in coming, and remains to be seen whether it will be enough to curb the tens of thousands of elderly injuries and hundreds of deaths attributed to these devices.

Part of the problem previously was that the FDA and the CSPC battled over who had regulatory jurisdiction, as there was no clear guidance on whether bed rails were consumer products or medical devices.

With this effort, it may not matter either way. In their joint statement, both agencies said that all “reasonable and timely efforts should be undertaken to address this hazard and protect the safety of the public.”

It’s really something that should have been done some time ago, considering that since 1995, there have been an estimated 550 bed-rail related deaths – 155 of those from January 2003 through September 2012. Plus, there have been nearly 40,000 people treated in hospital emergency rooms between 2003 and 2004 for injuries related to adult bed rails.That amounts to about 4,000 each year.

The majority of those injured or killed were over the age of 60. Many suffered from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

The FDA was warned back in 1995 that adult bed rail deaths were a growing problem. Still, it wasn’t until four years later that the agency formed a working group comprised of patient advocates, researchers and medical device manufacturers. The agency was going to impose regulations that would have required manufacturers to add warning labels to the equipment. However, the industry staunchly opposed such action, and the FDA backed down, citing the cost to smaller bed rail companies and also the trouble in getting such regulation through layers of bureaucratic approval. Never mind, apparently, that some of our most vulnerable citizens would continue to be subjected to harm without warning.

If you aren’t familiar, bed rails are those metal bars used in nursing homes and hospitals that allow patients to help pull themselves up or out of bed. In some cases, they are intended to help people roll out of bed.

The problem is that in some cases, patients – particularly elderly ones – become confused and sometimes become trapped between the mattress and the railing. This ends up resulting in serious injury and death.

Nursing homes and hospitals don’t use them quite as often as they once did, but you can still find them in many facilities. What’s especially troubling is the fact that a lot of places still use the older models for many patients.

In 2006, the FDA finally issued voluntary guidelines that offered some instruction to nursing homes and hospitals regarding the use of adult bed rails. Those guidelines recommended gap and opening size limits in the rails and made a point to identify which parts of the body are most likely to become stuck.

The newer rails are supposed to be better-designed, but they certainly aren’t without issue.

With regard to the new guidelines, it’s expected that ASTM International, which publishes voluntary technical standards for a large number of products, will head the committee.

There are many who remain skeptical that these new standards will have much impact, given that previous voluntary guidelines failed to do much to stem the tide of injuries. One Massachusetts lawmaker called the government’s response to the issue “tepid.”

It remains to be seen whether these guidelines will produce different or better results.
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Published on: June 25, 2013

Authorities Catch Nursing Home Abuse on Camera

By Dean Freeman

In a novel move that has the potential to spread rapidly among law enforcement agencies across the country, the Ohio attorney general’s office announced it was shuttering a suburban nursing home after authorities installed cameras that captured footage of abuse.

Our Riviera Beach nursing home abuse lawyers understand that while Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine noted it was the first time authorities there had taken such action, he has pledged it won’t be the last.

DeWine was quoted as saying that he was putting all nursing homes and nursing home employees on notice of the state’s “new way of approaching this.”

His office has reported a spike in reports of nursing home abuse across the state, receiving some 131 neglect and abuse cases thus far this year, compared with fewer than 75 this time last year. A number of those investigations launched as a result, DeWine said, involved the use of cameras.

This has caused nursing home staff to throw out words like “paranoia,” “police state” and “spying.” Of course, this melodrama on the part of nursing homes is merely because they don’t want all of their secrets exposed. Even relatively well-maintained operations have a tendency to cut corners. Knowing there is a possibility they are being watched provides a heightened incentive to do the right thing at all times, not just when they know someone is nearby or they are due for an inspection.

As a preventative measure, implementing a standardized video monitoring system could be monumental – though such innovative measure may still be some time away.

There are some legal implications, as most nursing homes are private, for-profit entities. For Ohio authorities, they had to obtain consent from every resident and/or guardian who was being recorded. In doing so, state investigators did not need to obtain a warrant.

The issue of whether family members could initiate such surveillance without breaking the law is iffy. State law mandates a patient’s bill of rights that includes the right to privacy during medical treatment. Then you have federal law that protects privacy of both medical records and treatment. Florida statute doesn’t expressly prohibit private cameras in nursing homes, but it’s possible that such action could violate the law. This is why if you strongly suspect abuse, you should talk first with an experienced nursing home abuse attorney who can guide you through how best to approach the situation.

Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas each have laws that expressly allow individuals to install cameras in nursing homes. Florida and Massachusetts, meanwhile, have initiated video-monitoring pilot programs.

That program allowed nursing homes from various parts of the state to volunteer to have video cameras installed in common areas and in individual rooms, if residents approved. Of course, the program was predicated on nursing home participation, and it was limited. Those nursing homes most prone to neglect or abuse weren’t likely to sign up for the program. In the end, it was not sanctioned as an ongoing, statewide effort.
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Published on: June 17, 2013

Florida Nursing Homes May Be Ill-Equipped for Wanderers

By Dean Freeman

A family has filed a lawsuit following the death of an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease who died of a heart attack after he was found just outside his nursing home in temperatures slightly below freezing. He was transported to a nearby hospital in New York where he was declared dead.

Our West Palm Beach nursing home negligence lawyers know that while many patients may have complex medical conditions, an injury, illness or death caused by wandering is 100 percent preventable. It amounts to negligence and neglect and families should not ignore the fact that the nursing homes have a responsibility to prevent this kind of thing.

Some families might chalk it up to their loved one’s propensity to wander. But often, that is why families and loved ones came together to make the difficult choice to place the person in a full-time care facility in the first place. Staffers are fully aware of a patient’s condition (or should be) and measures should be in place to prevent such occurrences.

If a person ends up wandering away regardless of those policies, either the staff didn’t properly follow procedure or the procedures were inadequate. Either way, the nursing home is responsible.

As the U.S. continues to gray, the number of people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia is going to continue to rise. We worry that nursing homes in Florida may be ill-equipped to handle this increase.

Studies have shown that between 11 and 50 percent of all long-term care patients will wander at some point during their care. For dementia patients, that figure is closer to 60 percent, with certain individuals prone to wandering again and again.

There have been some high-tech solutions to the issue of wandering patients. For example, a former rehab hospital director recently helped to invent a GPS shoe, which could be worn by Alzheimer’s patients so facilities could quickly locate patients who do slip through the doors.

Facilities should have a good plan for what to do if a patient does wander – sometimes called “elopement.” But really, patients shouldn’t even make it out the door in the first place. Doors should be locked and guarded and there should be enough staffers and controls in place to prevent patients from simply walking out. In addition to solid supervision, that might mean activity programming that is engaging to the residents, leaving them less likely to wander off. It could also mean multiple levels of environmental deterrents, such as alarms in the foyer or near the doorway.

Patients who have a strong propensity to wander should be identified early on, with all staffers involved in that individual’s care aware of the situation and can actively take steps throughout the course of care to prevent wandering.

A typical person who wanders is a male with an average age or 74 who is functionally impaired, may have sleep problems, is prescribed psychotropic medications and may have had a more active adult lifestyle.

Researchers suggest there could be biomedical reasons for wandering tendencies, and nursing home facilities should strive to help address those by allowing safe spaces for wandering, providing ample opportunity for exercise, and providing the individual with meaningful activities and a safe, comforting environment.
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Published on: June 14, 2013

Nursing Home Neglect, Fraud Convictions for Owner

By Dean Freeman

A nursing home owner was convicted on federal charges of conspiring to defraud Medicaid and Medicare programs by billing them for worthless services in the operation of three Atlanta-area nursing homes, where hundreds of patients received deficient care for years.

He was given 20 years in federal prison. Additionally, he’s been ordered to pay more than $6.7 million in restitution to both Medicare and Medicaid, as well as $875,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Our Stuart nursing home abuse attorneys understand that the owner was paid some $33 million by the federal government to provide services that were never offered to patients. These included charges he claimed for food and medical care. Patients either never received these services or they were so minimal as to be deemed worthless by state and federal investigators.

Following his arrest, the nursing home owner requested a bench trial, which lasted through the end of February. A verdict wasn’t rendered until the following month, when, in addition to his conviction for health care fraud, he was also convicted for eight counts of ripping off the IRS for $800,000 in employee payroll taxes between 2004 and 2005.

Officials say the owner was living large. In lieu of alimony payments, he bought his ex-wife a $1.4 million home in Atlanta and also put her on salary as a nursing home employee – despite the fact that she never worked there. He also drove a Mercedes-Benz, owned luxury furniture and took expensive vacations. He even spent $4.2 million on a real estate purchase where he planned to build a luxury hotel.

Meanwhile,between the summer of 2004 and the fall of 2007, the residents at the nursing homes he oversaw were suffering. Officials described the patients as hungry and living in facilities that were overrun with filth and mold. Some were bordering on starvation. There were leaking roofs, toilets that failed to work, little to no nursing or housekeeping supplies, serious staff shortages and safety concerns. In one case, employees used a 55-gallon drum to collect and divert rainwater. In one of the homes, the leaks had gotten so bad that the fiberglass ceilings were saturated and pieces of the ceiling began to fall onto the residents’ beds.

Windows had to stay open to help abate the awful smells. There were also mosquitoes, flies and even rodents that were entering through poorly-fitted doors and screens. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that the owner failed to pay the trash collection bills, so mounds of garbage began to pile up near the dumpsters.

The homes began to become overrun with mold and mildew, which worsened when the owner failed to have broken air conditioning units replaced. He also never bothered to fix broken clothes dryers, washing machines or hot water heaters.

As for the food situation, it got so bad that workers spent their own money to purchase bread, milk and other groceries so the residents wouldn’t starve. They took their linens home to wash and purchased cleaning supplies from their own pockets.

Many employees were paid by checks that bounced. Health insurance premiums were withheld from their earnings, despite the fact that employees weren’t actually covered. Several were left with huge unpaid medical bills after they sought treatment or surgeries.

When you start to add all this up, 20 years doesn’t sound like such a stiff sentence after all.
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Published on: June 11, 2013

Nursing Home Negligence Often Stems from Under-staffing

By Dean Freeman

In many cases, harm inflicted upon nursing home patients doesn’t happen because staffers are evil or harbor ill will toward residents.

In fact, our Port St. Lucie nursing home abuse lawyers believe that in most cases, staffers started out in their careers with a desire to help people.

But these workers are grappling with work environments that are increasingly a challenge, particularly as a result of privatization which can lead to understaffing, long hours, low pay and a management system that offers little guidance or oversight.

Of course, this does not excuse negligence and it certainly is not an excuse for abusive behavior. But it may help us to explain it, which in turn might help us to address it.

Take, for example, the case of a licensed practical nurse in suburban New York who is facing numerous misdemeanor charges – bumped down from felonies – for reportedly neglecting to give residents their medications and then falsifying documents indicating that she had administered the drugs.

Make no mistake – this was a potentially fatal error on her part, and should without question be addressed and punished.

But her criminal defense lawyer has an interesting take on the matter. He indicates that having been in the elder care field for more than a decade, she did care about her patients. However, she was burdened by the conditions in a facility that was going through the process of privatization, had undergone a mass exodus of regular staffers and management that was thoroughly disorganized.

In fact, less than a year earlier, inspectors with the state’s health department had cited the facility for violations that included having bloodied rags in the kitchen and medications that were administered to the wrong patients.

So while, yes, this one staffer certainly needs to be held accountable for her negligence, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that it likely occurred as part of a larger problem – one that is present in facilities across the country.

As one aging ombudsman was quoted as saying, some of these nurses might have an entire wing of patients to themselves. Granted, these aren’t intensive care unit patients, but they do require around-the-clock care, and it’s simply too much to ask one person to handle.

The buck truly stops with the nursing home facilities who overburden staffers with unrealistic responsibilities, without providing them the tools that would allow them to offer minimum standards of care to residents. It doesn’t help that certified nursing assistants are only paid about $10 an hour.

In 2010, federal officials testified before Congress that about 7 percent of complaints made to aging ombudsmans at the state and county level concerned provable case of neglect and abuse.

A 2011 study conducted in New York found that actual abuse rates are about 24 percent higher than what is reported to authorities. There are approximately 3.2 million people currently living in nursing homes nationwide.

Research has repeatedly borne out the theory that nursing homes tend to have more deficiencies because they often fail to expend as many resources on staffing and training.
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Published on: June 8, 2013

Nursing Home Abuse Vastly Underreported

By Dean Freeman

A recent study conducted by researchers with Cornell University and the state of New York revealed that there aremore than 250,000 adults 65 and older who were abused and neglected in 2011 – just in that state alone.

Our Davie nursing home abuse lawyers believe the figures for Florida would be much higher. Although New York has a few hundred thousand people more than Florida, we have a population that is skewed older.

The problem is that getting a real handle on the problem on a national scale is close to impossible as a result of a lack of reporting methods and the fact that no agency is charged with the official collection of nursing home abuse data.

Not to mention, this is a crime that is severely underreported. Nursing home residents are far less capable of advocating for themselves than those in the general population. This is compounded by the fact that administrators have every incentive not to self-report these incidents. They fear not only bad press, but also federal and state penalties, not to mention criminal sanctions. This is not to say that these facilities shouldn’t be held accountable when they have acted in a way that fails to protect patients from harm, but there are few incentives for whistleblowers. Many end up losing their jobs.

As such, many patients are forced to suffer silently.

Financial abuse was among the top crimes perpetuated against the elderly in New York, according to the most recent study. Many of those cases involved caretakers who bled them of cash.

The next most common complaints were physical and sexual abuse, which reportedly affected some 23 out of every 1,000 elderly New Yorkers.

A study conducted in 2010 by federal officials revealed that nearly half of all nursing home staffers admitted to in some way either mistreating or mentally or physically inflicting harm on their patients at some point in the last year. Seventy-five percent said they had neglected a patient at least once in the last year.

Even inspections have proven ineffective. The U.S. Department of Heath & Human Services estimates that about 7 out of 10 nursing home inspections fail to catch at least one problem at the facility, with 15 percent of those being serious or dangerous problems.

But all it takes is one serious problem – one missed medication, one instance of negligence, one abusive act – for a loved one to be forever damaged or even lost.

So how do we address this?

Some lawmakers have come forward with an answer in the form of H.R. 861, the Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2013. With seven co-sponsors, the bill would fund the creation of a federal agency under the umbrella of the U.S. Justice Department that would be in charge of establishing a systematic way of tracking elder abuse from sources in both local and state governments. The measure would also direct the U.S. Attorney General’s Office on the best way to enforce sanctions on elder abuse crimes.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem as if the measure has much chance at success, at least not during this session. It was referred to committee back in late February, and it hasn’t been touched since. It’s been given a prognosis of a six percent chance of getting passed in committee and only a 1 percent chance of getting passed.

We are hopeful these kinds of efforts will continue.
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